False Misconceptions
by rubi of queenscove
Summary: MPP/L...wormtail coming later. All the students in Hogwarts think that Lily and James love each other...and that's far from the truth. James only wants to be friends after a four year fight, but what will Lily think? And will Hogwarts take it the wrong wa
1. Embrodo Mulitilo Parsereverso

James sat on his four-poster, whispering to Sirius about his latest prank with Lily.  
  
"So anyway, I went in charmed it last night, while they were all sleeping...I think that she'll be very happy, to say the least, when she finds that all of her clothes now say 'I love James Potter'...humm, what d'ya think, Sirius?"  
  
"I just think you were very lucky for that charm to have worked."  
  
"I know...I even managed to put that other charm on, you know, the one where only I can change them back...humm...Oh, wait, hang on a minute," James said, glancing at his clock. "3...2...1..."  
  
A loud yell could be heard throughout the Griffyndor dormitories. "JAMES POTTER!!!"  
  
"Right on time," James said with a smirk. He hauled himself out of bed, got dressed, and headed down to the common room. Lily stood there, her face fire engine red and her green eyes blazing.  
  
"POTTER! CHANGE THEM BACK!" Lily pointed furiously to her robes, jeans, and even shoes, for that matter. Silver lettering was embroidered across them, large enough to read even from a distance.  
  
"Evans," James replied, quite calm, "Did you know, when you're angry like this, your face takes on an uncanny resemblance to a tomato?"  
  
"Potter..." Lily murmured warningly.  
  
"Here, look. Your face and hair are red enough to fool anyone. And your eyes are the stem...right, Sirius?"  
  
"POTTER! If you're not going to change me back, I'm going to do something about it." Lily jumped up and onto James, pinning him down to the floor. She pulled out her wand and muttered something, three things, actually.  
  
"What in the world have you-"  
  
"Consider it payback, Potter."  
  
James stood and looked down at his robes. They were much in the same fashion as Lily's, except somehow, Lily being the charm expert that she was, managed to make the words bigger and flash all different colors. They read "I love Lily Evans".  
  
Meanwhile, Sirius was laughing his head off. Remus, standing beside him, was studying Lily and James thoughtfully. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Sirius between laughs.  
  
"I do believe so, Sirius." The two Marauders snickered to themselves.  
  
"Oh, and you think this is funny, do you?" questioned Lily.  
  
"Uh, no ma'am, of course not," Sirius said, making a mock serious face (no pun intended). Even so, he was not able to help smiling just a bit.  
  
"By the way, Potter," Lily said, a smile playing about her lips, "You might want to go check out the things in your dorm. I think you may get a pleasant surprise."  
  
James looked at her questioningly, and then scampered up the stairs to his dorm room. "Amateur," Lily muttered.  
  
Sirius, Remus, and Lily stared after him. Once he was gone, Sirius turned to Lily. "What exactly did you do to him?"  
  
Lily smiled. "Not only are his clothes like that, everything he has, uses, and owns is like that. His bed, his sheets, his toothbrush..."  
  
Sirius and Remus grinned. "Good one, Lils."  
  
Lily glared at them. "Don't call me Lils, unless you want to end up the same way as Potter."  
  
"Ok, Lils."  
  
"THAT'S IT! I've HAD IT with you, Sirius!" Lily muttered the charm. In seconds, Sirius's robes appeared to be identical to James's. One small difference, however...  
  
"I LOVE SEVERUS SNAPE?" Sirius yelled.  
  
"Don't you just love them?" asked Lily, smiling cheekily. "I call them 'Robes a la Lily'. By the way, you can go and join Potter, if you like. You will find that all of your things also say this."  
  
Sirius tried, unsuccessfully, to reverse the charm. Snakes sprouted out of his wand. "Ugh," he said, transfiguring the snakes into chocolate frogs. He popped one into his mouth and offered 2 others to Remus and Lily. For all the horrid grades that he received in his other classes, Sirius sure made up for it in transfiguration. He and James were at the top of the class.  
  
At that moment, a yell could be heard from the fourth-year boys' dormitories. "EVANS!"  
  
"Looks like James has discovered his surprise..." Lily murmured thoughtfully.  
  
James stomped down the stairs, holding his invisibility cloak and an 'I love Lily Evans' comb.  
  
"Wow, Sirius, I didn't know that James owned a comb,"  
  
"It's one of his little known facts," Sirius replied with a snicker.  
  
James glanced at Sirius's robes and burst out with a giant laugh. "So what did you do to her, Sirius?"  
  
"Don't ask," he replied.  
  
"I'm feeling very lucky right now," said Remus, looking around at his friend's bedecked robes.  
  
"You should be...oh, by the way, Evans," James started. "You RUINED my invisibility cloak!"  
  
"I did? What a TRAGEDY! How, anyway?"  
  
James slipped the cloak over his head. Though his body remained invisible, 'I love Lily Evans' flashed different colors in the air."  
  
"Perfect," said Lily. "Now I'll know whenever you're trying to sneak up on me."  
  
"Ugh," said James. "I'm not going to change you back, and you're not going to change me or Sirius back. Let's just go to breakfast."  
  
"Fine with me," replied Lily. And the four walked down to the hall. 


	2. Announcements

The group walked into the Great Hall. Students from every house gawked at them.  
  
"Come on," James said to Sirius, who was looking worriedly around the hall. "They're only looking because we're late."  
  
The four headed over to the Gryffindor table. Lily's two best friends, Riley and Katrina, stared at them.  
  
"Why in the world is everybody staring at us?" demanded Lily.  
  
"Umm...your clothes?" Katrina suggested, as if it were obvious.  
  
"Well, of course, Kat, I know that." Lily replied bitterly. "It's all part of a wonderful little prank Potter decided to pull on me. What's so special about our clothes that everybody wants to stare at them?"  
  
"Er...Lily? Think about it."  
  
Lily clapped a hand to her mouth in sudden realization. James loves Lily. Lily loves James. Sirius loves...Severus Snape.  
  
James and Remus seemed to have also figured it out, and James was sitting with his head in his hands. Sirius was still clueless. "What? I don't get it!"  
  
Lily sighed. Sirius could be such a nutcase sometimes. "OK, Sirius- think about our clothes. Basically, the whole school thinks that James and I are going out, and that you're gay, Sirius."  
  
"I'm not gay!" Sirius shouted.  
  
"I wouldn't be too sure about that," James murmured to Lily, who was sitting beside him.  
  
Lily snickered quietly. A sudden idea swept over her. She whispered to James, who nodded and laughed.  
  
"Hey, what are you two planning over there?" Sirius asked cautiously.  
  
"You'll see..."  
  
Lily stood and muttered the same charm she had used on James and Sirius- "Embrodo Mulitilo Parsereverso". James, Remus, Sirius, Kat, and Riley craned their necks to get a better view of what she was looking at. The Slytherin table. A very surprised Snape looked in bewilderment at his clothes. They read "I love Sirius Black"  
  
"HEY!" Sirius shouted.  
  
By now, the entire school had noticed Snape's robes, and was giggling uncontrollably. Even those at the Slytherin table were not able to contain a few giggles. Lily strode up to the front of the room, where Dumbledore was sitting. "Professor, if you don't mind..."  
  
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and he motioned for her to go ahead. Lily stepped up onto the platform. "Sonorus!" she muttered. Her voice magically grew ten times louder. "ATTENTION, HOGWARTS!" The entire school looked up at Lily.  
  
"I would like to take this time to set a couple of things straight. First of all, James Potter and I are NOT going out. The clothes we are wearing are the result of one of the many pranks we play on each other."  
  
Someone from the Hufflepuff table yelled, "Whatever, EVANS! Everyone knows that James loovvvves you!"  
  
Lily rolled her eyes. People always thought that she and James were a couple, but that was far from the truth. She snuck a glance at James. He was cherry red. "Anyway, as I was saying- I'm SURE James will agree to help me reverse the charm after I am through." Lily caught James's eye. He was giving her a look that clearly said, "No way!" Lily continued.  
  
"I would also like to- to- to-" Lily was unable to contain her laughter. "I would- also like- like to invite the entire school to j-join me in wishing Sirius Black and Severus Snape the best of luck. We-we really had no idea...an-and we will always support you." Unable to hold it in any longer, Lily burst out laughing, along with the entirety of Hogwarts.  
  
Snape stood up. "How did you know?" he shouted to the Great Hall.  
  
At this everyone started laughing even harder, especially the Marauders. Sirius stood up and walked over to Lily. "Sonorus," he said.  
  
"I am not gay! Even though our friend Mr. Snape has recently enlightened us that he, in fact, IS gay, and is in love with me-" At this Sirius stopped and made a face. The school snickered "-I would like to point out the fact that I most CERTAINLY am not and would not go out with Snape if my life depended on it! Thank you."  
  
The school started laughing and clapping. Lily and Sirius took awkward bows, smiling at one another. They headed back down to their seats.  
  
James was laughing so hard he could barely speak. "Snape-- Snape's GAY! I mean, we always suspected...Hey, Evans, what say we turn our robes back?"  
  
"Alright...that's fine with me. But let's keep Snape's." Lily pointed her wand at James's robes. "Reverso Embrodo Mulitilo."  
  
Nothing happened.  
  
Lily tried again. "Reverso Embrodo Mulitilo!"  
  
Still nothing.  
  
Lily gritted her teeth in anger. Rising to her feet, she shouted, "REVERSO EMBRODO MULTILO!!!!!!"  
  
Lily suddenly realized what was wrong. She had put another spell on James and Sirius's possesions- and the lettering wouldn't come off for 2 weeks. She swore under her breath.  
  
"What's wrong?" James asked.  
  
"That lettering's not going to come off for another 2 weeks, Potter. You and Sirius are stuck with these words all over your stuff for just a little bit longer."  
  
"A little bit? 2 weeks isn't exactly what I would call a LITTLE BIT, Evans!"  
  
"It's not my fault, Potter! I wasn't exactly thinking about what everyone else would think!"  
  
"Well, Evans, if you're not going to reverse Sirius and my stuff, I'M not going to reverse yours."  
  
"Fine."  
  
"Fine."  
  
As they were leaving the Great Hall, Riley whispered to Kat, "I'm not too sure that everyone believed them."  
  
*****  
  
AN- Thanx for all the great reviews! I luv you guys :-) I'm going to change the title to False Misconceptions, so look for that with the next chapter. 


	3. Reconciling with the Enemy

A/N: I had a half day today so I decided to write this out. Sorry about the wait!  
  
***  
  
A week had passed since the robe incident, and James, Sirius, Remus, Kat, Riley, and Lily were the only fourth years that had decided to remain at Hogwarts for the Christmas holiday. Doing so would usually be fun, as they would have the run of Gryffindor tower. However, this year the case was different. Most all of the 5^th, 6^th, and 7^th years had decided to stay for the newly adopted annual Christmas ball that Hogwarts was holding. The ball was only for 5^th year and up, so the Marauders couldn't attend. Despite the unfortunate situation, Christmas was approaching fast for the friends. A strong feeling of anticipation hung in the air. Though the holiday was less than a week away, James and Sirius, being always the forgetful ones, still had yet to purchase gifts. They sat in the common room late into the night.  
  
"We need to get into Hogsmeade to buy things for our friends," said Sirius.  
  
"Well, if that's not stating the obvious, I don't know what is," replied James tartly, still wearing his "I love Lily" robes. "Let's make a list of things to buy so that we can get this over with quick." James despised shopping for anything, except if it were something Quidditch-related.  
  
Sirius nodded in agreement, and the two friends grabbed quills and parchment, scribbling away recklessly. After a couple of minutes, James abruptly stopped writing, staring down at his paper intently.  
  
"What is it?" asked Sirius, glancing up from his own parchment.  
  
"It's just- I don't know what to get Evans."  
"Ahh, James is having a bit of lady trouble?"  
  
"Sirius! No!" James shouted, blushing furiously.  
  
"James, here's a riddle. What's black and blue and red all over, and flashes multicolors?"  
James looked utterly confused. "What?"  
  
"YOU! Right now! HAHAHAHAHA!" Sirius laughed hard. He fell onto the floor, rolling around and banging his fists like a 5-year-old.  
  
"Sirius?"  
  
Sirius abruptly stopped laughing. "What, James?"  
  
"That wasn't funny."  
  
"Oh. Sorry, James. Here, let me see your list."  
  
James reluctantly handed it over, but not before charming it so that Sirius's line was invisible.  
  
Mom and Dad- Gift certificate to Madam Malkin's  
  
Remus- 101 Werewolves that Made it Big, by Noom Noitamrofsnart  
  
Peter- Honeyduke's Sampler  
  
Riley- Wizarding Mood bracelet  
  
Kat- Color-Changing robes  
  
Evans-  
  
"Hmmm," said Sirius, pondering the list slowly.  
  
"What?" asked James.  
  
"I really don't know what you should get Li- James, can I ask you something?"  
  
"Sure, Sirius," James replied.  
  
"Now be honest."  
  
"What IS it, Sirius?" James asked, annoyed.  
  
"Do you like Lily?"  
"NO!" James replied quickly.  
  
"Hmm, that was just a *little* too fast," said Sirius, a grin creeping across his face.  
  
"Sirius, you know as well as I do that Evans and I hate each other like- like- like- Snape hates you."  
  
"Snape is in love with me," Sirius reminded him.  
  
"Oh, that's right." James said, grinning as he glanced at Sirius's robes.  
  
"Back to the point," said Sirius, "Why do you even hate Lily anyway?"  
  
"Ummm...hang on, wait, I know this one. It's because she pushed me over our boat and into the lake in our first year."  
  
Sirius laughed, recalling the memory. His face suddenly grew serious (no pun intended.) "James, is one little thing like that enough to hold a four-year-long grudge?"  
  
"Ummm..."  
  
"And what's with this last name deal? Do you even realize her first name is, in fact, Lily?"  
  
"I-"  
  
"And what about all of the pranks you pull on each other? Why do you do that?"  
  
"SIRIUS?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"Sirius, I don't know how I feel about Evans. I'm just not too sure that we actually ever hated each other. Maybe for a week in first year, at most, but not all the time. I don't know how I feel, Sirius. I think that I would just like to be friends with her, for once."  
  
"I know we would all like to see you two work out your, er, differences. Me, Remus, Riley, and Kat, I mean."  
  
"But how, Sirius? How am I supposed to reconcile with her? `Oh, Evans, I know we haven't been on the best terms these past years, but I want to be friends?' Yeah, sure, Sirius. I *suddenly* want to be friends with her after we have supposedly hated each other since we first met. How am I supposed to make up with her?" James looked concerned and worried.  
  
"That, James, I think you have to figure out yourself."  
  
"Wonderful," said James bitterly. "What SHOULD I get her for Christmas, anyway?"  
  
"I have an idea," started Sirius.  
  
"Well, that's a first," laughed James.  
  
"So funny. Anyway, it would cover both of your problems. Why don't you just ask her to be friends with you for Christmas?"  
  
"Sirius, you're losing your touch. That is the lamest, most corniest thing I have ever heard in my life." James paused, looking thoughtful. "But it just might work."  
  
***  
  
A/A/N: Sorry it was so short, but I have karate. I have the next chapter in my head, so hopefully it will be up in a couple of days! Love the new title? :-) It will come into play later. Truth be Told was just a beta title, and to tell the truth, I didn't like it much. So that's why I changed it.  
  
http://www.sheroescentral.com : The best Tamora Pierce and Meg Cabot discussion site on the `net! 


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